Charles Lapworth.
Charles Lapworth (Faringdon, Berkshire, September 21, 1842 - March 13, 1920) was an English geologist, pioneer in the use of fossils to analyze animals, and who identified the Ordovician period.
After completing his studies to work as a teacher, Lapworth settled virtually on the border of Scotland, where he researched the fossil fauna of the area, very little known previously. In 1869 he married and stayed in the region. Finally, thanks to a patient record and an innovative use of fossil analysis and classification, Lapworth showed that what was thought to be a thick sequence of Silurian rocks was actually a much thinner series with numerous folds and faults .
In the end they accepted his controversial analysis, and little by little he was promoted to become one of the top geologists of all Britain. He was a professor in various institutes, and received numerous awards for his work, such as the Wollaston Medal in 1899. He is best known for being a pioneer in the faunal analysis of siluric layers through fossil classification, especially graptolites; and by his proposal, adopted much later, that the layers between the Cambrian strata of North Wales and the Silurians of south Wales were assigned to a new geological period: the Ordovician (described by Lapworth in 1879). This proposal managed to resolve an arduous discussion about the antiquity of the strata in question.
Documents about Charles Lapworth can be found in the Special Collections of the University of Birmingham.
His son, Arthur Lapworth, worked as an organic chemist to elucidate the reaction mechanism of some processes such as the halogenation of ketones.
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